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24 July 2012

Fashionable People: What Charlemagne’s Clothes Say about Him

Everything Charlemagne (748-814) did was political, right
down to his choice of clothes. In The
Life of Charlemagne, former courtier Einhard nicely has chapter called
“Dress” and opens with, “He wore the national dress of the Franks.”

Einhard then provides this gem to historians and
novelists everywhere:

“The trunk of his body was covered with a linen shirt,
his thighs with linen pants. Over these, he put on a tunic trimmed in silk. The
legs from the knee downward were wound with leggings, fastened around the
calves with laces, and on his feet, he wore boots. In winter, he protected his shoulders and
chest with a vest made of otter skins or marten fur, and over that, he wrapped
a blue cloak. He always carried a sword strapped to his side, and the hilt and
the belt thereof were made of either silver or gold.”

The king also had a gold broach and a diadem. For special
occasion or visits from foreign dignitaries, he had a jeweled sword. And during
high festivals, he could wear golden cloth and jeweled boots.

“He disliked foreign clothes no matter how beautiful they
were and would never allow himself to be dressed in them,” Einhard says.

Charlemagne was sending a message by this choice: that he
was a proud, patriotic Frank who submitted to no one but God.

In fact, he used fashion as a political weapon. In 788, one of his conditions for freeing a
hostage, the son of the late duke of Benevento, was that the southern Italian
agree to shave his beard in the Frankish fashion. This was an apparently
response to the rival Byzantine desire for a similar show of loyalty from the
old duke.

Only twice did Charlemagne ever wear anything other than
the Frankish costume, and it took two succeeding popes to convince him. They
asked him to wear a long tunic, chlamys, and Roman shoes—the garb of an
emperor. He later used that image on his coins, complete with a laurel wreath.

The ninth
century Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (also known as the Sacramentary of
Metz) depicts a coronation—and it shows what a ninth century Frankish king
wore. Charles the Bald was one of Charlemagne’s grandsons. (Public domain image
from Wikimedia Commons)

Kim Rendfeld is the author of The Cross and the Dragon, a tale of love amid the wars and blood
feuds of Charlemagne’s reign. Her debut novel, published by Fireship Press, is
available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. For more about Kim, visit www.kimrendfeld.com.